A Yarn-y Venture.....

This was the shot I showed on my teasy post about things to come....but this is halfway through the journey really.

It all started with......yes, you've guessed it.... Pinterest!

What doesn't really start with Pinterest in my world!

I found these.....

....on Studio SOIL, aren't they just adorable?

They are children's hangers, not quite my colours though......

I also saw some in a mag decorated with flowers and chickens, can't find the mag, so I@m guessing it was in a waiting room somewhere!  Anyhow, I didn't memorise the pattern just the nuber of chain to start you off.....odd thing to remember really!

But neither is quite my style.  Or is it?

I had decided that I didn't really want hangers....but then our caravan - Miss Flossie Vanroyce - came out of storage and I thought....hmmmmm!  A little bit of luxury on Weekend Escapes would be rather nice.

I whipped off to Amazon for some beech crescent hangers and got out my stash of Rico Creative Cotton. 

Remember it?  I used it for the post about  the Crochet Rainbow Stained Glass Tealight.

I picked the colours that appealed to me....the first photo up there ^ ^ shows 6 colours but I also added pale blue too, looking at it now they remind me of the beach, the cold colours of the sea contrasted against the warm colours of the sun......... mmmmm..... smell that sea air...

It also all came to me on a night when I needed some Peace & Quiet....I rather oddly decided that this could be achieved by decanting myself, the project and some homely things into Flossie-van, like this.......

My lovely 'bucket' of green tea in it's little cabled sweater (a birthday present from Tiny Angel Mummy), a homemade Banana & White Chocolate Chip Muffin (thanks Mum) and rather crumpled table cloth (hand embroidered by either my Aunt or my Nan...it could have done with an iron....but I just couldn't waste time ironing!) and my colourful Stylecraft Special Double Knit bag inspired by this from, yes, you've guessed it!  Lovely Lucy at Attic24.

Here it is open and ready for action.....

I used the pattern sizing I had remembered from the magazine I read and used 17 chain to start, 16 for the foundation row and 1 for turning.  Also that I would use a Half Treble (UK term) stitch for a fairly quick but nice thick finish.

Then I cast on in the orange and randomly worked my way through the colours crocheting anything from 1-5 rows of each.  I finished in turquoise and left the ball of yarn attached ready for the next bit!

I can't say how long the finished piece should be as I just kept going and measured it up against the hanger.  Size depends on your yarn, tension, hook size, hanger size......!

When I'd finished it looked like this......

And outside Flossie-van looked like this.....!

Too little light to carry on, so I went back indoors, to bed, to return to my hanger another day!

When I did return it was to.......

 ....sew in all the ends......next time I shall do larger stripes (fewer ends to darn!) and see if I can find a way to crochet over the ends with the next row to save myself this rather tedious but necessary job. 

Don't forget....don't cut off your ball of yarn and sew that in!

Next, I slip stitched about 7 stitches to the centre of the short side, folded it in half and crocheted the two sides together through the loops (through the two loops, yarn round, pull back through the 2 loops (2 loops on your hook), yarn round and back through the 2 loops on your hook, then same through the next pair of loops)

I chose to crochet together as I don't like sewing up and it is a prettier and neater edge!

Like this......

I found some wadding (left over from my Mini Quilt projects, cut it roughly to size and using an ordinary needle and thread (and not very prettily as it won't be seen) oversewed the two open edges of the wadding together to cover the hanger like this.........

I passed the hanger hook through the centre (of the long and short sides) through the nearest gap in the crochet and slid the padded hanger into the end that had been crocheted together like this..........

I then carried on joining the two sides with my simple but pretty crochet edge.

At the other end, finish by pulling the yarn through your last loop and darning in the end!

And that's it really.

So are you ready for the BIG REVEAL?

Beachcomber Clothes Hanger...........

Ta-DaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!....

I really love it!  Soooo pleased with the result that I can't explain how smile-y it makes me to look at it.  I hope sharing this with me will make you smile too.

I am happy to pop up a tutorial on how to do any part of this process, just let me know.

I already have plans for one in a range of blues and greens for 'Boys' and pinks and purples for 'Girls'....I put it like that as these are adult hangers not childrens!

Got a quick post for you next time, so I'll see you for that very soon.

Nora xx